Filed under Reading a Service Record: A Method Guide
What should you look for first?
When the record contradicts a family story, trust the dated record for dates and units, and treat the story as a clue about experience that the record does not capture. Both can be true in different ways, but only the record fixes the timeline.
A variant spelling is not a different person, and an identical spelling is not the same person. Both mistakes come from trusting spelling alone. Keep the question narrow. A search for everything about a person returns nothing usable, while a search for one dated fact returns something testable.
How do you work through it step by step?
Work in date order, one record at a time, and write each finding into the timeline with its reference before opening the next record. The steps below assume you have already fixed the person, the number, and the dates as far as you can. If you have not, do that first, and then return. Treat the steps below as a loop, not a ladder: a finding at a later step often sends you back to re-check an earlier one, and that is normal. If the same step keeps producing the same wrong person, the filters are wrong, not the record set. Stop and re-fix the person before repeating the step.
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | List the forms in the file, and note any missing sheets or gaps first. |
| 2 | Put the dated entries in date order, regardless of the order the sheets are filed in. |
| 3 | Transcribe abbreviations and corrections exactly, before deciding what they mean. |
| 4 | Add each interpreted entry to the timeline with its sheet reference, then decide the next record. |
How to read this kind of entry
If an entry seems to contradict the previous entry, read the entries between them. The contradiction often dissolves into a transfer, a posting, or a correction. When a record and a published history disagree, the record written at the time wins, and the history becomes a question, not an answer. Keep the original terms in your transcription and put your interpretation in a separate column. A transcription that already contains conclusions cannot be checked by anyone else.
Common traps in this record type
If every search returns the same wrong person, stop searching and re-examine the filters. Repeating a search with the same filters will repeat the same result. When a trail breaks at a transfer, a renumbering, or a reorganisation, follow the dates and the people, not the name of the unit or the ship.
Where a record set is arranged by unit rather than by surname, a surname search alone will miss it. Mirror the catalogue structure, and the record set opens up. A photograph, a medal, or a story that points to a unit the records do not support is a prompt for one more check, not evidence that the records are wrong.
What should you check next?
The related guides at the foot of this page link back to the pillar for this section and to the neighbouring guides, so you can move through the cluster without losing the person you started with. The cluster around this guide is a chain, not a shelf. Reading it in chain order, following the links at the foot of each page, keeps the person in view. The person you started with is the test for every next step. If a step loses that person, it is the wrong step, however interesting it looks.
Primary sources for this guide
Claims in this guide are kept general and point to official holders, so you can check the current position with the holder itself. This guide is general educational information only. It is not personal professional advice, it does not offer a record lookup service, and it does not determine any individual's service.